Lord Rooker: Information on the number of people recognised as being (a) profoundly deaf (b) deaf or (c) hearing impaired is not centrally collected. However, figures from the Continuous Household Survey (CHS) in 2003-04 indicate that 15 per cent. of the adult population suffer from hearing difficulties.

Lord Rooker: I understand from Waterways Ireland that as at 8 May 2006 the body has 88 employees based in Northern Ireland. Of these 30 have a Protestant community background, 52 a Roman Catholic background and six have provided no community background information. This represents 59 per cent. Roman Catholic, 34 per cent. Protestant and 7 per cent. others. Of the six employees who provided no community background one came from employment in the Republic of Ireland.